As with a few of my previous posts, I’d like to add some important happenings in my life here, though I m sorry for not updating this as often as I once used to.

I realised not too long ago that this very blog is about 8 years and 23 days old, and that does not include the time it was live on Brian’s server. Thats some 519 published posts. Coming all that way I should question myself why I dont have enough followers, but then it started as a personal blog and as of today it still functions as one, it never was meant to be for a huge audience.

The move

If you look at the graphic above, you’ll notice that I’ve put in a silhouette of a skyscape which is not something new for me to do, but it’s there because I’ve moved out of Karachi yet again. This time around back to Dubai, UAE. I’ll be here for the foreseeable future. I’ve joined a digital agency here called Hug Digital Middle East.

I’ve already met some old friends here and some of my relatives. I m hoping to get in touch with more. Hit me up on facebook or here if you want to meet up (and no I don’t drink so don’t invite me to bars).

Recap

I’ve had a very nice 2014 by the way. I got engaged to this one very awesome human being. I m so lucky I can’t even believe. I’ve switched city and jobs. I’ve gone on amazing trips around Pakistan. I don’t think I can complain about the things that happen in my life, and should only be thankful.

Since I’ve been away from writing much, I m not sure what I can add more here at the moment.

It’s been a while since I wrote on this blog, I m sure it’s been ages, infact the last time I did was to wish anyone (read no one) who was reading, a Happy New Year. A Happy year it has been for me so far Mashallah, Alhamdolillah. Infact I think things have been pretty good for me since the June of 2013. That’s more than a year of recorded goodness for me, I can’t even begin to tell you how lucky I have been since my existance.. I’ve been blessed my whole life and I have countless people to thank for that..

But this entry today is not about just gratitude, it’s more about my discovery about the love I have for travel. I may have said that I love traveling before, but that’s because I wanted to and I envied people who posted gorgeous pictures of places so beautiful you could hardly believe they were real, but now after I have travelled a little and mostly explored places with in Pakistan, I can truly say my love for the roads between cities, mountains, lakes, lands and cultures is real. It’s real because there is so much we don’t know about so many things that exist in so many corners of the globe.. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and become good friends with people who share the same love.

Last year in the June of 2013, me along a friend (Najam) teamed up with 3 other individuals to visit the northern Pakistan (Rawalpindi to Khunjerab, covering various places in between). These other 3 individuals (Faizan, Mohsin, Maujood) have become amazing friends with me and Najam and it has been the reason that we’ve done more trips, picnics and get togethers, and our families have started to get a little bothered by it.

Last year we managed to cover places like Skardu, Upper Kachura, Shangrila, Sadpara Lake, Deosai plains, Manthoka falls, Shigar Fort, Gulmit, Attabaad lake, Hunza Valley, Gilgit Valley, Fairy Meadows, Nanga Parbat view point & Khunjerab. We covered all these places in a packed non-stop travel schedule of 10-12 days. We stayed in Islamabad on our way back for 2 days so we could rest our body before we headed back to Karachi.

Then earlier this year in January’14, we took a road trip all the way to Ormara in Balochistan. Infamous for being a security concern for anyone traveling in that direction, we followed our gut feeling and planned out the whole trip in a matter of 3 days, made arrangements and set out. This trip did not include the usual travel mates, but one of my office colleagues Abdul Wahab accompanied me and Najam along with another of his friend Haroon who now are also good friends with us. I remember this trip being full of beautiful textures throughout the trip. Allah has made nature amazing and it’s beautiful how air and water erosion has shaped up the landscapes. We literally saw statues of princesses, kings on thrones, spinx (or lions) and forts that were NOT made by man, but infact were a result of air erosion.

In February we made another trip with the usual gang and more friends from US and Canada had joined in to go to Azad Kashmir (AK). Our country is full of places that are eye candy for the soul, this time thankfully we travelled to Lahore by train and then hired our own van to take us all the way to AK. We didn’t get to do a lot of traveling or heavy road trips this time, since we had a count of people that need more care But this trip did help each of bond, some more than others Our trip included places like Rawalakot, Banjosa Lake & Tolipeer.

Very recently I had the privilege of traveling to Azad Kashmir again, but this time with the usual travel mates, minus Mohsin (since he was occupied else where). This was a very drive intensive trip though. We drove ourselves from Karachi all the way to Kel in AK. The highways in Sindh are not something to be proud of, but I guess they do the job, but sadly that job takes a toll on your car. As soon as you hit the motorway in Punjab you feel the stark difference in your drive. Everything becomes smoother and less painful, and that is one thing I think the government should think about fixing. The road that leads up to Muzaffarabad is amazing, and the road from there on out is even more beautiful, words hardly do any justice. Shahdara, north east of Muzaffarabad is a place with a river flowing next to it, with lush green mountains on both sides. Our trip after a night stay here continued toward Kel and then roughly a 2.5km 120˚ trek to Uran Kel. An amazing place with a gorgeous view. On our way back we had a brief sleep in a mosque on the motorway, because there is no other way we could have drove all the way, the way we did.

Other than these trips, we’ve made smaller picnic arrangements here and there, and shared a bit of awesomeness with some of our friends who have been unable to accompany us on our long and tiring yet full of amazing view trips.

On the other hand, this year on the 4th of May 2014, I got engaged to a wonderful girl (who shall not be named yet) A wonderful, beautiful human being who I m going to share my life with

I also briefly had a baby Afghan Hedgehog of 3 months. I say briefly because he passed away a week and half later after I bought him due to diarrhea, which resulted in a weak dehydrated body that could not sustain itself. It was also a result of an unavailability of a vet nearby at all, let alone one that could treat a hedgehog. Even though it was with me for a short while, and I did care enough to clean after it’s mess, clean and bath it, not to mention actually spend time with it so it could try not to be defensive with me. I miss it dearly. It’s passing upset me, but I m ok now.

I’ve grown to understand all this is part of life, and we’re meant to cherish the good, and let go of everything that could have a negative or a depressing impact.

To all those who haven’t had a chance to go out and explore, I ask of you to take out some time for yourself, and take a break to explore the nature which is a gift to Human beings from Allah Almighty.

I m more of a Sir Richard Branson fan, but then again you end up respecting people for what they’ve done. In that context I truely admire what Mandela had done for his country, for his people.. The struggles and the pain he put himself through just so the other won’t have to.

In his death more than we need to mourn it, we need to learn from his life.. What he did for his people and so on. This artwork in that sense is a little whimsical, it has his smile which he carried through out, and also the active life he had. And the great things that he brought in the lives of others..

]]>http://dehog.net/2013/12/madiba-is-gone/feed/0http://dehog.net/2013/12/madiba-is-gone/Amperstand and then somehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dehog/~3/inco04sOFtU/
http://dehog.net/2013/11/amperstand-and-then-some/#commentsWed, 20 Nov 2013 20:26:44 +0000http://dehog.net/?p=2268Finally I think I found some time to do something on my own. Amperstand has been one of my favourite symbols in the English language, so I decided to give it a shot.

Amperstand, one of the most beautiful characters of the english language. It can be traced back to the 1st century A.D. and the Old Roman cursive, in which the letters E and T occasionally were written together to form a ligature.

On the other hand I visit Lahore not very long ago, for one of my closest friend Ahmer’s wedding. On the last day I found some time to visit the famous Badshahi Masjid as well as see the Minar – e – Pakistan albeit only from the outside.

Lahore is a nice safer place to be, and I absolutely loved the roads, way better than Karachi. The only thing that I guess needs work is people learning how to drive better.. Not that us Karachites are that good at it..

]]>http://dehog.net/2013/11/amperstand-and-then-some/feed/0http://dehog.net/2013/11/amperstand-and-then-some/Why you do this to me?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dehog/~3/53yAD8Qzhsk/
http://dehog.net/2013/10/why-you-do-this-to-me/#commentsFri, 04 Oct 2013 11:38:22 +0000http://dehog.net/?p=2258

I was going to start with how I dont like their logo at all and stuff like that, but I guess for now, fuck that! There are more things and services fundamentally wrong with this bank than their logo, brand and whatever the fuck, doesn’t seem so important to me after all.. Yes, thats coming from some one who appreciates good aesthetics.

So what’s my problem, why am I fuckin blabbing.. These ass wipes had my account in their pipeline for a good 1 month before they decide ‘Hey we’ve got a Shahzad Khan to process his account’.. So a month and half later I get my cheque book.. and I m supposed to do my primary transactions in this shit.. So.. about 2 weeks after I get my chequebook.. Some one from my company notifies me that my ATM card is ready at the branch… These asses don’t even have the decency to notify that my ATM is ready let alone that they could mail it..

So I decide to write an authority letter and send one of my office guys to pick up the card on my behalf.. Thank fully no fuss there.. And then I get the shitty card… My name is spelt wrong.. I m like what the fuck is wrong with these people.. My name was right on the letter these guys mailed me a while back for the cheque book and a stupid welcome letter but no they decided to fuck it up on the card it self!

I m like fine whatever, now where’s my PIN.. Well another surprise.. activate that bitch over the phone.. Umm.. ok.. I can do that.. till I call and find out that there’s no number registered on my account and you have to call from a registered number for activation.. Why the fuck did you ask me to fill out that lengthy form of yours if you dont have all this information on your system..

So I m like fuck this, I need to this shit to work anyways so I go to the bank.. and their system is down.. All the money they spent working on their infrastructure.. well it’s fucking down!! Piss off shit faced ass!

So any how after bringing another friend of mine along who was a friend of he bank manager I finally get to talk to their hotline representative who after talking to one of the bankers allows to put a registered number on my account.. So now I have to call and then just activate it.. well thank fully yes it worked this time… I offered prayers that this was done.. I was soooo happy.. Till that time I decided to register for online banking.. Well surprise ass hole, you dont have an email id associated to the account.. I m like what the fuck..

To all those who’re out there alive breathing human souls (and no not that google bot) who some how decided that they’d come here and read this space, let me tell you I have been an invisible man for my blog. It’s been a good couple of months since I last wrote, and it has been full of life!

So.. I m thinking I’ll do this post a little backwards. Start from the immediate recent and move all the way back to when I joined VentureDive.

Green Man’s Ark

The super recent is well me joining Green Man’s Ark (GMA).. Some of you might wonder what that is.. If you’ve heard of AdCom which is if you’re updated about the Pakistani Advertising scene I m sure you’re already aware of this brand is an Advertising Giant.. GMA is a very recently launched sister brand which deals in all sorts of AdCom’s digital division and then a lot more. It has got to be the only other company I’ve enjoyed working the way I do. Go crazy, go nuts!

Here’s a little preview of the space we crash at.

The trip

A little while before joining GMA, I went on a 2 week vacation to the North of Pakistan, and Oh my God! The places I’ve seen are way beyond the descriptions that would come from my words.. My pictures would hardly do justice to the experience and the thrill of being there.

This is a picture taken right outside Skardu. Amazing view, amazing place.

To see a few more, hit my instagram. And if you’d like to see video episodes of my trips so far, catch them on facebook : dehog.fb.

And I resigned from VentureDive when I came back from my vacations. VentureDive was a great experience. Life needs to expand more though.

I’ve been working with VentureDive for a few months already, leading their UI/UX side. It’s a good team to be working with and I m enjoying too. Over the past couple of months I had been busy with some internal and client projects, though one of the most important project was to get venturedive online thoroughly. We had a website and a facebook page, one that barely passed for their designed jobs, a logo with text in helvetica regular (no styling, nothing unique or distinct). Fast forward to current date and we have our minimalist logo, a live website (still killing a few bugs here and there and updating some graphics and copy). It’s functional and it’s working.

Next in line is getting our official blog up, where our team members will put in an effort to put up atleast one blog post a week, I think that makes for a good start. And then obviously we’d like to get rolling with our Facebook page as well.

These are the only details I’d like to throw in right now, I’ll throw in more details soon about our projects and products we’re working on.

You can go check out the website and send us some feedback — venturedive.com

It’s almost the end of 2012, about a day more and then we’re done with it. No more of 12/12/12 crap.. no more of the Mayan’s Ending our world.. No more of ‘Oh god we’re gonna die’.. End of all that.

It’ll be time of a fresh start for alot of things hopefully.. I look forward to seeing alot of good stuff, Inshallah.

This post is a little welcome to 2013. It also is a reflection on what happened in 2012, to say the least.. 2012 hasn’t been the kindest year to me, so I m looking forward for 2013, to be a change in course on the brighter side.

The start of 2012, got me back in dating.. That didn’t go well for a few reasons, but the sad part of it all was that I lost a friend.. I’ve been kicking myself in the nuts ever since. In the same month, I happened to burn half my face which took a few months to recover, the pain and all is gone, but the scar’s still present..

Then I bought a car.. A car that has given me more headaches than most things but then again it’s been most helpful in more ways too.. specially saving me some money and carrying people around like a happy driver

In the month following my car purchase I lost some 70 grands on gun point.. Including my cellphone and watch.. This was also the first time ever I had given anything away like that.. I’ve been on gun point before, but Alhamdolillah have always managed to evade the situation.

Soon after that I lost a bunch of other friends because they didn’t like the other friends I hung out with.. I get it, I understand why.. But I wish that wouldn’t have happened. I miss these people alot. Not that I haven’t made more friends in that same time, I’ve met some incredible people, discovered new good sides of other people I knew from before, found new crushes for myself (which didn’t last long) and that’s awesome.

Then there’s Game Ventures closing down it’s office in Karachi, that was a major blow for me. Game Ventures had been a place I had come to love, the work, the people, the environment.. All of it. It’s closing down didn’t bother me much immediately.. But when you start to know other people, work places and their environment, you learn a lot about the place you’ve worked before.

Right after that was the car sandwich accident.. My car was hit from behind by a speeding car, it was hit so bad.. my car jumped to the car in front.. damaging my car from both ends.. I was alright.. Mostly..

Then on and off I get this feeling that I m losing more friends.. But I guess that’s normal.. It’s not something that happens every now and then.. But I m still human.. it happens.

The only things I do remember that didn’t go well for me are, the friends I’ve lost and the burning of my face.. I sometimes still feel the flames and it freaks me out.

There’s a lot more that has happened.. and I know I missing out on a alot, some on purpose. But there’s mostly negative stuff up there, maybe because I dont feel so good right now.

Any how, it’s the new year coming up, so Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope the new year is good for everyone. Inshallah.

I wish the people who’re now far from me, in terms of communication not distance… All the best for their lives.. I wish we meet some day and laugh at our mistakes.